Suspect who hit sheriff's detective with car before being shot by police identified as Bellflower man

LOS ANGELES - The coroner has identified the suspect shot after hitting a sheriff's detective with the front of his car at a strip mall in South Los Angeles.

He was Brice Jefferson, 24, of Bellflower, said coroner's Lt. Renee Grand Pre.

The shooting occurred about 2:40 p.m. Friday at a strip mall in the 11400 block of South Vermont Avenue near Imperial Highway, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said.

The detective, 44, was taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where he was treated and released, said Deputy Don Walker of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau. The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene, he said.

Deputies responding to a report of a kidnapping at the intersection of Vermont Avenue and Imperial Highway were approached by a 31-year-old woman who told them she and her boyfriend had an argument at the location, Walker said.

The woman said her boyfriend threatened her with a knife, then took her car and drove south on Vermont. Inside the vehicle were the woman's daughters, one 8 years and the other 7 months old, Walker said.

As detectives spoke with the woman, the suspect returned, driving south on Vermont at a high rate of speed, and swerved into the parking lot of the strip mall directly toward the detectives and a patrol car, he said.

"The suspect struck the patrol car and hit one of the detectives with the front of his car. The detective was knocked to the ground and partially pinned beneath the front end of the suspect's car," Walker said.

"When the suspect then revved the engine and attempted to put the car in gear, a deputy, fearing for the safety of the detective, shot the suspect."

The man, now identified as Jefferson, was struck several times, he said.

The children weren't in the car at that point. They were later found unharmed in a Ralphs supermarket parking lot several blocks away, Walker said.

The suspect was not their father, he said.

The woman was not injured, Walker said.

The shooting was being investigated by the sheriff's department, as well as the Los Angeles County District Attorney Office and the County of Los Angeles Office of Independent Review, as is standard in fatal deputy-involved shootings.